


"Everyone Calls Me Jenna!"

by Thebiwife



Series: Motherhood and Mermaid Pie [2]
Category: ER (TV 1994), Waitress (2007)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Keri Russell, Recasting, Sister-Sister Relationship, Starting Over, Teenage Drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-14 23:53:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28803861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thebiwife/pseuds/Thebiwife
Summary: Chloe and Susan catch up on (most of) what Susan has missed, and the big sister struggles to support her lil sis' dream...
Relationships: Chloe Lewis & Susan Lewis
Series: Motherhood and Mermaid Pie [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2108883
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As this fic overlaps with several series already on the go it is effectively a multi-chapter fic but the whole work is organised under the Series entitled 'Motherhood and Mermaid Pie'. Please start with "What's Inside" otherwise this might not make much sense.

"Chloe, come on it's almost 7 and I have to get to work, are you getting up? Shouldn't you be getting ready for school by now?"

"I'm not going to school," Chloe screamed from beneath her pillow. 

Susan's one-bedroom apartment was most definitely not the best place for two sisters to be sharing, heck, she's nearly kicked Chloe out of bed on much more than one occasion.

"What is it like a holiday today or something?" Susan asked, her muffling barely intelligible due to the slice of toast between her teeth.

"No, I'm just _not_ going," Chloe whined.

Susan returned to the bedroom with a plate of toaster waffles for her kid sister.

While at seventeen Chloe wasn't quite a kid anymore, she always had a soft spot for her big sister, especially when she brought warm breakfast treats.

"What's wrong, Chloe?" she asked her, her voice warming through the familiarity of her soft sigh. "I'm guessing you and Mom had a fight again..."

Chloe nodded and took the plate from her sister, a stubborn look on her face.

"Are you going to tell me what it was about?"

Chloe shook her head as she took a bite of the waffles. "I do have a headache though."

"Ok, well you can stay here today," Susan put the back of her hand to her sister's forehead. "But just for today! Unless you're willing to speak to someone in Psych you're going back in tomorrow."

"What, you mean Div?" Chloe laughed. "Sure, I'll talk to your old man boyfriend if it means I never have to go back." 

"And I'll take you back to Mom and Dad tonight," Susan said, wrapping herself in a scarf and coat. "Meet me at work at 3. Keys are on the table."

Chloe wanted to argue against going back to her parents but decided it wasn't worth it just yet. At _some_ point she is going to have to tell Susan everything, and still, she wasn't in any rush to do that.

"Make sure you take in some Pie for Div!" she shouted after her sister.  
  


* * *

Susan’s day at work was not exactly enjoyable, between Mark's daughter being at work with him, and it being what must be the hottest October Day on record, she needed to get out of there.

“Drinks later?” Carol asked Susan at what was probably an inopportune moment.

“I wish I could but can’t, I’m finishing soon and I’ve got Chloe staying…”

“Oh really, on a school night?”

“She’s fallen out with our Mom again. I don’t quite know over what, she’s coming here for when I finish and I’m gonna try get to the bottom of it.”

“Dr. Lewis your sister is here!” Jerry yelled over to them.

“And here she is. And early, would you believe it,” Susan smiled, eyes widening. “Hey, Chloe! You remember Carol?”

“Yeah, I think so, hey,” Chloe smiled and waved. “Can we just grab a coffee or something? I wanna talk to you before…”

“Sure, just give me five minutes and we’ll go across the street.”

* * *

“Who even is Doc Magoo?” Chloe asked her sister as she perused the menu.

“Who knows,” Susan muttered. “Hey, Becky, I’ll have a coffee and a slice of the apple pie. Oh, and some iced water,” she added, fanning herself.

“Same,” Chloe smiled politely. “Oh, but make it decaf.”

“Decaf, since when do you…? Oh!” Susan’s face dropped. “You aren’t?”

“I’m not what?” Chloe said, playing dumb.

“Chloe...are you pregnant?”

“Maybe?”

Susan glared at her.

“Ok, I am!”

“Chloe…” Susan sighed.

“I didn’t plan it!” 

They were interrupted by a very interested looking Becky who put down two plates of pie, before coming back over with two pots of coffee with different-colored handles.

“It is Earl’s, right?”

“Yeah. But he doesn’t want me to keep it. We broke up…”

“Ah,” Susan grimaced. “I’m sorry, kid. Are you...going to keep it?”

Chloe nodded. “I  _ want  _ to.”

“And that’s what you fought with Mom about?”

“She said she’s only just done raising us so doesn’t want to help raise a grandchild.”

Susan sighed again, albeit sympathetically, before standing up and moving around to sit next to her sister on Chloe’s side of the booth. “I’m sorry our parents suck, kid,” Susan said, kissing her cheek. 

“Can I stay with you?”

“I wish you could, Chlo, but it’s not gonna work long-term.”

“Why?”

“I don’t have room for both of us and a baby, it’s a one bed.”

Chloe’s face dropped.

“But you can stay for now, of course you can,” Susan took her first bite of pie, “but I still want to speak to Mom and Dad. We need long-term solutions.”

“About that...I still don’t want to go back to school.”

“Chloe…” Susan dropped her fork.

“Hear me out. My GPA is shoddy. I know what I want to do, I want to bake. And not graduating next summer isn’t gonna get me any closer to that. But I’m 18 next month, I can get a job, and work towards my GED.”

“I don’t need to travel across the city every day to be made to feel like a failure. And now everyone knows I’m knocked up…I can’t stay there another 6 months pretending I want to be there while I just get bigger…I just want to do what _I_ want to do. I want to bake. I want to make pie.”

Susan sat back, clutching her mug, thinking for a second. At exactly the same age, she had rebelled from her parents, albeit in the most bizarre way possible...applying for college. _This was Chloe's college!_ Of course without the same job prospects, and with a baby on the way...but did she see Chloe doing anything else with her life? Quite frankly, _no._

“Ok, Chloe, I'm not your Mom, I can't _make_ you go back to school, especially not once you're eighteen. So here's the deal; you get a job here so I can keep an eye on you, and once you're earning you pay towards the apartment, not _rent_ , but I mean, food, bills, laundry. Then I help you get out on your own by the time baby arrives, _if_ Mom and Dad won't take you back in."

"I prefer the first option anyway."

"Fine," Susan said, taking a sip of her coffee, which was met with a scowl from her sister. "I said fine!"

Chloe beamed. "So what job here? In the hospital? The cafeteria?"

"Oh God no, they earn even less, no tips. Hey, Dawn!"

The short red-headed waitress wandered over to them, pushing her glasses back up her nose. 

"Is there still a job going here?"

Dawn shrugged. "I s'pose so? Speak to Cal, the last girl we trialled didn't last the week and we haven't found anyone else."

Susan turned back to her sister. "Did you bring that pie for Div? That will probably get you out of needing to do the trial."

Chloe smiled, pulling the wrapped piece of pie out of her bag. "Do you still want me to talk to Div?"

"Oh, God no. Maybe someone from Social Services, get you started on applying for Welfare...and definitely someone from OB."


	2. Chapter 2

Susan was exhausted from climbing the six-storey staircase from street level up to her Mom & Dad's apartment. No wonder they only left the place if it involved booze, cigarettes or gambling, there was little motivating Susan to do this again - except, perhaps, her protective love of her little sister.

“Susie-cakes!” a high-pitch squeal cried from behind the door after Susan did her characteristic three knocks on their apartment door and letting herself in.

“Morning Mom,” she sighed, looking around the living room for any sign of either of her parents. “Where’s Dad?”

“He went to the corner store to get some smokes,” Cookie said, emerging from the bathroom in a bathrobe and her hair up in foils.

“Right. Well, guess who showed up at my place last night.”

“That pregnant kid sister of yours, huh? Well Susan, I’m only going to tell you what I told her; I’ve done it once and I’m not doing it again, she wants a baby, she better marry the guy who did it to help her raise it!”

Susan closed the door behind her, trying to stay calm before she lost it with her mother. “So you see absolutely no reason that your daughter, who’s not even eighteen, should look to her parents for support? Did you know she was having sex with Earl? Did you ever  _ once  _ talk to her about contraception or take her to the clinic?”

“You managed to navigate all that on your own, Susie.” 

“The fact that  _ I  _ did has no bearing on whether or not  _ she  _ could. Heck, you’ve had two daughters for almost two decades and you still don’t know a thing about what makes us so different, do you? Why did you even have children?”

“Don’t speak to your mother like that,” Henry Lewis said sternly, appearing in the doorway behind Susan and putting his hand on her arm.

“Dad, leave me alone,” Susan pulled her arm back, the tone in her voice dropping. “So you’re both happy that she’s staying with me now, just so she's out of _your_ hair? You  _ really  _ don’t want a baby in your apartment  _ that much _ that you’ll let your seventeen year old daughter drop out of school to move into her sister’s crappy downtown apartment just to get some dead end job making pie!? Because that’s all she’s getting from me!”

* * *

"Hi, um, I'm looking for Cal? My name's Chloe Lewis, it's my first day." Chloe was as bright eyed and bushy tailed as they come; curly hair almost down to her waist, perfectly manicured nails, pie recipes in her satchel.

"Cal!" the black woman behind the counter shouted him. "I'm Becky, but I'm sure you can read the tag." Chloe couldn't tell at this point if she was faking being friendly or not; maybe she was this abrupt with everyone, or maybe she just took some time to warm to newcomers.

"You're that ER doctor's sister, right?" a tall, greasy-looking guy in a white vest and worn chef pants asked her. 

"Yeah, that's right, my name's Chloe..."

"Jenna," he said, slamming a name badge on the counter in front of her. "We got this damn enamel badge made for the last girl and she didn't last a week. So now, when you're behind this counter, you're Jenna. Dawn, who will be training you starts at eleven. Until then, tie up your hair, fill up the coffee pots, and don't piss off the customers, that ok?"

Chloe nodded, taking the enamel badge and blue uniform he now handed over to her. "Where can I...?"

"Bathroom's over there," Becky smiled. 

"What pie do we have on today?" Chloe asked, following Becky behind the counter.

"Same we do every day!"

"Oh."

"You'll soon learn the ropes, kid."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Chloe is now also known as Jenna! Not that Susan will ever call Chloe that...nor will Chloe ever drop the "Susie." Also, as I won't be featuring much of Earl in this fic therefore she never becomes Jenna 'Hunterson'. Keep your eyes peeled for other diversions from the Waitress canon, Film & Theatre fans!


End file.
